As Nigeria’s economy becomes increasingly dependent on digital systems, a failed transaction, unavailable government portal, insecure application or unreliable AI output is no longer simply a technical problem. It can mean lost revenue, frustrated citizens, stalled businesses and, ultimately, an erosion of trust.
That is the argument at the centre of Nigeria Software Testing Week (NSTW) 2026, which returns from October 19 to 24, 2026, with a significantly expanded national footprint and the theme “The Trust Economy.”
Convened by Testify Limited, NSTW 2026 will run across five Nigerian states over six days, bringing together secondary-school students, undergraduates, aspiring and practicing technology professionals, founders, corporate leaders, regulators, government institutions and quality-engineering practitioners.
The ambition is deliberately broader than a conventional software testing conference.
NSTW is positioning software quality as infrastructure for the digital economy.
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For years, software testing has largely been treated as something that happens somewhere between engineering and product before a release goes live. But the consequences of poor-quality technology are now much bigger than the engineering team,” said Ibironke Yekinni, Founder and CEO of Testify Limited and Convener of Nigeria Software Testing Week.
When people cannot access their money, complete a transaction, rely on a network, trust an AI-generated response or depend on a platform their business runs on, quality becomes a leadership issue, a regulatory issue and an economic issue. The Trust Economy is our way of bringing everyone who has a stake in that trust into the conversation.
A conference week built around different parts of Nigeria’s technology pipeline
NSTW 2026 will begin in Enugu on October 19, with a summit for teenagers at MAE Mater Elizabeth High School, introducing senior secondary-school students to technology and software testing as viable career paths.
On October 20, the programme moved to Kwara State, where University Summit will engage undergraduates from 8 Institutions and Campuses at Kwara State University, connecting students to software testing, technology careers, practical industry exposure and emerging opportunities in the quality-engineering economy.
October 21 is dedicated to GovTech Day, an exclusive virtual programme for government officials and public-sector technology teams. More than 34 ministries, departments, agencies and regulatory institutions are being invited to nominate relevant officers for the three-hour working session.
Rather than another ceremonial government webinar, GovTech Day will focus on practical questions around software testing, AI testing, cybersecurity, data, digital-service reliability and accountability for quality in government technology.
The programme continues on October 22 in Makurdi, Benue State, in partnership with Remnant Christian Network, with a summit built around the idea of Technology Beyond Coding. The event will
expose young and practising technology professionals to careers across software testing, product, cybersecurity, data, AI and other disciplines that make modern technology organisations work.
On October 23, NSTW moved to Abuja, bringing testing and technology professionals, founders, regulators, government leaders and industry stakeholders togetherfor conversations around digital trust, quality engineering and the systems increasingly underpinning Nigeria’s economy.
The week culminates in Lagos on October 24, with the flagship Lagos Summit at 157 Gardens Event Centre from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. WAT.
Later that evening, industry leaders, corporate organisations like MTN, INTERSWITCH and MONIEPOINT, government agencies like NITDA, 3MTT, and other stakeholders will gather for the Nigeria Software Testing Industry Dinner and Award Ceremony, beginning at 5:30 p.m., to recognise individuals, corporate organisations and institutions contributing to the advancement of software quality in Nigeria.
One product, multiple locations, one national testing challenge
A major feature of the Lagos programme will be the NSTW 2026 National Quality Hackathon, designed as a simultaneous national software-testing challenge.
Teams will test a real Nigerian technology product, with a Nigeria product with millions of users serving as the product under test, BrowserStack supporting the testing infrastructure, and BugBed supporting bug and leaderboard management.
Participants in Lagos will compete physically from the Summit, while participants outside the venue will be able to join remotely from participating locations.
Unlike a traditional hackathon where teams are asked to build products from scratch, the National Quality Hackathon asks a different question:
How well does an existing product actually work when subjected to hundreds of fresh eyes, devices, browsers, user journeys and testing perspectives?
Participants will be assessed not simply by the number of defects they report, but by the significance, reproducibility, documentation and real-world impact of their findings.
The initiative reflects a larger philosophy behind NSTW 2026: African technology companies should not only compete on how quickly they innovate, but on how reliably those innovations perform when people begin to depend on them.
Beyond testing professionals
The expansion of NSTW reflects Testify’s attempt to move the software-quality conversation beyond its traditional professional audience.
Testify has built a community of more than 35,000 technology and software-quality professionals across Africa, while its training ecosystem has graduated thousands of practitioners into the industry.
Yet NSTW 2026 is intentionally designed to include people who may never have called themselves testers.
A founder making a product decision is making a quality decision.
A regulator setting requirements for a digital service is influencing quality.
A CTO deciding whether to prioritise reliability work is making a trust decision.
A teenager using a poorly designed application is experiencing the consequences of quality.
And an investor considering whether a technology business can scale is, whether explicitly or not, assessing the reliability of the systems underneath it.
This broader framing is what NSTW calls The Trust Economy.
From career entry to executive access
The Abuja and Lagos Summits will offer multiple participation levels, ranging from accessible entry tickets for students, beginners and career switchers to practical breakout experiences for practising professionals and executive access for senior technology leaders.
The programme includes keynote conversations from government and business leaders, panel sessions from industry stakeholders, hands-on sessions in areas including AI testing, performance testing and security testing, career development, speed mentorship, exhibitions, industry networking, a grand book launch and author showcase, and access to practical software-quality resources.
The week is also preceded by IGNITION on October 17, a virtual pre-NSTW event bringing together partners including BudCo Technology Limited, BrowserStack and BugBed for platform conversations, live demonstrations and preparation for the National Quality Hackathon.
For Ibironke Yekinni, the measure of success is not simply how many people attend.
“We want a secondary-school student to leave Enugu knowing there is a place for them in technology. We want an undergraduate in Kwara to see a real career path. We want a government officer to go back to their agency asking better questions about the systems they procure and deploy. We want founders and technology leaders to understand that quality is not what slows innovation down. Quality is what allows innovation to survive scale.”
“If Nigeria wants to build a digital economy people can trust, then the quality of the systems underneath that economy can no longer be an afterthought.”
Nigeria Software Testing Week 2026 runs from October 19–24, 2026.
Registration, programme information and participation details are available at nstw.testarsquarter.org.
About Nigeria Software Testing Week
Nigeria Software Testing Week (NSTW) is a national technology and quality-engineering programme convened by Testify Limited to advance software testing, quality engineering, digital trust and professional development across Nigeria. NSTW brings together industry professionals, technology companies, government institutions, students, founders, regulators and emerging talent to strengthen the systems and skills powering Africa’s digital economy.
About Testify Limited
Testify Limited is a technology and quality-engineering company building talent, products, communities and platforms around software quality in Africa. Through its training, consulting, technology and community initiatives, Testify works to strengthen the people and systems responsible for ensuring that the technology organisations and societies depend on actually works.
Last updated: October 7, 2026
